Southern Cross sculpture
2003
Construction by Chris O'Dyer
Commissioned with the support of Dr Bruce Reid AM KNO
This sculpture by Jon Hawley was inspired by one of the earliest known images of the Southern Cross: a wood engraving in the rare manuscript Lettera di Andrea Corsali (Letters of Andrea Corsali), made in Florence in 1516. In the manuscript, Corsali describes the stars as forming a ‘cross so fair and beautiful, that no other heavenly sign may be compared to it’.* The manuscript is on permanent loan to the Mitchell Library from the Bruce and Joy Reid Foundation, Sydney.
Mounted on the vestibule wall above the marble staircase, the sculpture is made from cobalt blue glass, stainless steel, clear perspex and fibre optic lights that change colour throughout the day. It was the first major decorative element to be added to the Mitchell Library since the extensions of 1942.
Andrea Corsali
Andrea Corsali was a Florentine explorer under the patronage of the powerful Medici family. During a Portuguese expedition to Cochin (now Kochi), India, in 1515, Corsali observed a group of stars in the night sky pointing towards the South Pole. Immediately on reaching Cochin he sent his observations in a letter to his patron Giuliano de Medici in Florence. Corsali was not the first European to view the Southern Cross but he was the first to draw and describe its distinct shape. He described the stars as ‘..fayre and bewtiful, that none other hevenly signe may be compared to it’.*
It is unclear why Corsali was aboard a Portuguese vessel but he may have been representing the banking interests of the Medici. During his travels he wrote detailed letters and accounts about lands and peoples he encountered. He noted that Sumatra and Ceylon were two distinct islands, and is known in Italy for having identified New Guinea.
Footnotes
* Extract from the first English translation of Corsali’s letters, dated
1555. The original publication was titled Lettera di Andrea Corsali allo
Illustrissimo Signore Duca Juliano de Medici, Venuta Dellindia del mese di
Octobre Nel MD XVIThe Corsali Manuscript
Shortly after Corsali’s 1515 voyage, a copy of his letters was made by a Venetian scribe, possibly in secret, for Andrea Gritti, procurator and later doge of Venice. Gritti would have been greatly interested in the voyage and the involvement of the Medici as Venice and Florence were rival states, and such information would have been closely guarded. One other copy of the letters is known to have been made around the same time. The Gritti version was acquired by the Sydney collector and philanthropist Bruce Reid and is now on permanent loan to the Mitchell Library.
Dr Bruce Reid
Best known for introducing Primus LP gas to Australia, Dr Bruce Reid was one of Australia’s most successful business people and generous philanthropists. He supported a wide range of educational, art and humanitarian causes, and was a life benefactor of the State Library Foundation. He also held a great passion for antique books, Persian carpets, history and South Pacific exploration, but it was his enormous love and knowledge of astronomy that inspired his gift to the Library of the Corsali papers, which include the earliest-known diagram of the Southern Cross. These papers are on permanent loan from the Bruce and Joy Reid Foundation, which also funded the Southern Cross sculpture in the Mitchell Library vestibule.
As seems often the case, Reid’s leadership and contribution were publicly recognised overseas long before they were in Australia; in Australia he was made a member of the Order of Australia in 1999 for his contribution to business and the community, many years after he was honoured in Sweden as a Knight Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star, the highest honour bestowed on a foreigner.
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